


The Importance of Communication

by Ravenclaw_Peredhel



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Indis is trying okay, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28242366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenclaw_Peredhel/pseuds/Ravenclaw_Peredhel
Summary: Indis knows that she is a poor replacement for Miriel Serindis, who shone brighter than Laurelin and Telperien combined.But that doesn't mean that she will give up.
Relationships: Fingolfin | Ñolofinwë & Indis, Finwë/Indis (Tolkien), Fëanor | Curufinwë & Indis
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	The Importance of Communication

Indis may have loved Finwë for a very long time, but dreaming of the elf that she loved and actually being with him were two very different things. 

For a start, she must suddenly be Queen of the Noldor, of a people whose hearts remain with a silver-haired broideress of their own rather than a golden haired Vanya one. They bow to her and call her 'your Majesty' to her face, but behind her back they call her 'the Imposter' and scorn her Vanyarin ways and looks. 

And Finwë, her husband. He loves her, she knows this, but she can see the shadow in his eyes and the way he avoids tapestries, and though she does not begrudge him his memory of Miriel, her best friend, she also wonders. Does she measure up, or is she found wanting?

But most of all, she is judged by Fëanáro. In another, kinder Arda, she would have been his beloved Aunt Indis, but here, she is his wicked stepmother. He resents her usurpation of Miriel's place and shuns her. And she is so tired of being ostracised and hissed at and resented. 

Nolofinwë's birth, rather than fixing anything, has cemented the Noldor's opinion of her as a power-hungry nís determined to wipe out all memory of Míriel Serindë. And Finwë is gone. He was at Alqualondë visiting Olwë and he wasn't back in time for little Nolo's birth. She is exhausted, trying to be the picture perfect queen regent and to care for her newborn son. When, oh when, is Finwë coming back.

"Queen Indis."It is Ulumurion, one of her most ardent detractors. "Prince Fëanáro is missing." 

His sideways look at her reveals his expectation. She will collapse under the strain and have someone sent to find her stepson, shutting herself in her room with her new baby until Finwë's return. And it is so tempting. So tempting. 

Then a memory from before the Journey flashes in her mind. Of when she, younger than her two best friends and unable to keep up, fell behind in the dark woods. Of the bewildering and frightening noises and the total darkness. And of the faint shine of Miriel's silver hair when she came back with a flickering lantern and a bright spear. Miriel had put her arm around her and sang to her, waiting for Finwë, or anyone to hear them. Someone had heard them, shining brighter than any star, and mounted on a huge steed from whose golden hoofs flashed sparks. 

But that was not what the point of the memory. It was a question - was she going to repay her best friend's unquestioning bravery so long ago by abandoning her son to be found by others? While she was indeed Indis of the Minyar, the sister of the High King of all Quendi and the wife of the King of the Tatyar, she was also Indis Iminiel, the best friend of Miriel, who plunged into the haunted woods to find her without hesitation. And Indis is just as hard and unyielding as Miriel, with a spine of mithril and a will to back it up. 

She smiles at Ulumurion. "Then I suppose the council is over my lord. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. If you will excuse me my Lords." And she is out the door before any of them can react - she at least, has not forgotten everything of the Hither Lands. 

*****************

"Fëanáro?" She has finally stumbled across him, hidden in a little room that Miriel had bullied Finwë into including in the blueprints so long ago. "Are you alright child?"

He hunches his shoulders and turns his back to her. "Go 'way. I want Atto not you."

Indis sat down just inside the entrance, leaning her aching head against the wall. "He'll be back soon Fëanáro, within the next two days. You don't have to wait much longer."

"Stop pretending to be nice." And there it is again. "You don't even like me, you just wanted to marry Atto and be Queen."

"I want a great many more things than that. I want your Atto to be happy, I want to see your Amillë again, and I desperately want my best friend's son to be happy."

"Who is that?" Ah, she has him! He can never resist a mystery. 

"The son of my two best friends from the Hither Lands."

"Who were they?" He is demanding and impolite, but at least he is talking to her.

"Your parents. Miriel and I loved the same man you know, and we promised that if one of us died, the other would wed him, oh before we came of age even."

"You're lying! My Atto wouldn't agree to that! No one remarries!"

''Oh it was quite common when your parents were young. Elves died all the time, caught by the Hunter or mauled by animals or just plain Fading. Remarriage was a matter of course. It is only now that it is a great scandal." 

"But you made it so Amillë can't ever come back." So this was the problem. 

"Miriel can come back I assure you. She will take her sweet time about it though - she always did." 

"And you were her friend." An infinitesimal lightening of her tone. Maybe, just maybe she was getting through to him. 

"More than just her friend. We were sisters, in everything we did."

"And you married Atto."

"Yes." 

"You aren't my Amillë."

''No. But that doesn't mean I can't love you as the son of my best friend and the man I love."

He was silent, obviously wrestling with the problem. "Did you ever know anyone who remarried."

"My father actually." Imin and Iminyë had loved each other dearly, but Iminyë had died carrying one of Indis' sisters and Imin had remarried shortly after to ensure that his children would have someone to care for them if he too died. 

"Did you like her?"

"She was lovely, my best friend in fact. Not like my Amillë of course, but more like an aunt or a much older sister."

"And...did she have any children?" 

Indis laughed. "I have two half-siblings, and they were the bane of my life. They always jumped on me when they wanted to wake me up, and they used to follow me around everywhere."

"Where are they now?" He looks her in the eyes now...that is good surely?

"Dead. The Hunter got them just before the Journey." Her voice was flat. She did not tell her stepson that it was she who found them, curled up together with gaping wounds soaking thick red blood into the ground.

He tilted his head and looked at her consideringly. "You aren't my Amillë. You don't want to be my Amillë."

"No. I want to see my best friend again, but I don't want to take her place in anything"

She held her breath as she saw the cogs turning in his head. Maybe just maybe, this could actually work. "If Amillë was alive...would you be my aunt? Nerdanel calls her Amillë's best friend Aunt."

"Well...I suppose so."

"You can be Aunt Indis then." Yes! She was hard pressed not to whoop. Finally, finally her best friend's son did not resent her. "What is Nolo? My half-brother?"

"If you want him to be. Do, do you want to see him?" He nods jerkily and she smiles. Broken families are not as common in Aman as in the Hither Lands, but they always made them work in Arda Marred. Surely it would be easier in the Blessed Realm. 


End file.
